Varanasi South is a bastion of the BJP whose MLA Shyamdeo Roy Chaudhury had been winning it since 1989. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Varanasi South has given Narendra Modi a lead of 48177 votes over his nearest rival Arvind Kejriwal. Samajwadi Party has fielded Ashfaq Ahmed Dabloo to contest the Varanasi South seat in the upcoming 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. Ashfaq had lost to BJP’s Jyotsana Srivastava in the Varanasi Cantonment seat in 2012 assembly election.